We are parents and educators with a passion to improve reading and writing among students by providing books to read for free to students and assisting them with writing book reviews. Students can "earn to learn" too since they can earn gift cards for their book reviews.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

A new student review of Winterspell by Claire Legrand

Star360 posted a new student review of Winterspell by Claire Legrand. See the full review.

I really wanted to adore Winterspell. I love TheNutcracker, and Legrand’s previous book, The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, was wonderfully creepy. However, I was not able to completely immerse myself in this novel. First off, Winterspell should not be billed as a spinoff of the (Nutcracker) ballet. Besides the Christmastime setting and a few characters’ names, it has a whole life of its own. Also, while I appreciated the time that was put into describing assorted settings or emotions, it caused the book to drag. As for Clara, I understand that Victorian-era girls are not famed for being tough. But since she was put in so many perilous situations, I would have liked to see her be more resilient and clever. Her love interest, Nicholas, was manipulative and often lied to her. The faery queen was not the villain that I expected. To be honest, she seemed like an extremely psychologically imbalanced Princess Elsa of Frozen fame. On a positive note, the magical world of Cane was very thoroughly mapped out. The kingdom’s people were diverse, its cities well-detailed, and its history was explained. The book also included modern social criticism about different hierarchies and lifestyles. Essentially, Winterspell has an interesting skeleton. Readers, likely teen girls, who enjoy their Christmas season with a dash of fantasy will be pleased with the romantic tale.

About Us

LitPick.com and Flamingnet.com are worldwide networks of preteen and teen book reviewers. The websites offer book reviews written by young adults on young adult books.
Flamingnet was started in 2002 by Seth Cassel (Harvard '13) and his father, Gary Cassel. They continue to manage Flamingnet, along with the help of a dedicated staff and many adult volunteers located all over the world. In 2011, Seth Cassel and a team of fellow students at Harvard College developed LitPick.com. LitPick improves upon the Flamingnet concept and functionality, especially as a social network for young adult readers and as an opportunity for students to review the ever-expanding number of new eBooks that are becoming available to young adult readers.
www.litpick.com
www.flamingnet.com